How to Lose Post Baby Weight and Not Eat Sugar When Sleep Deprived

Angela: As a mum of two young boys I totally relate to Angeline’s post. I think this is a good post to read whether you are trying to lose weight or not. Being a mum can be a bit of a juggling act and one that can leave you tired and looking for sugar which you can avoid if you choose the right foods. Over to Angeline…

Angeline: Well let me start by saying that being a new mum is the most rewarding and challenging thing I’ve done with my life so far. Women’s bodies are absolutely amazing and it’s out of this world that we can grow our own babies and feed them, it’s a very special journey and one that was totally alien to me. I embraced the changes that happened with my body (well almost!) and really enjoyed tracking my progress with pictures and monitored my weight gain. At first it was very daunting to see those numbers go up but after a few weeks. I embraced the belly and just made sure I kept active throughout my pregnancy.

Keeping Healthy and Staying Active

I know every woman is different with their pregnancies but I loved being pregnant and can attribute my great experience to keeping healthy and active throughout the 9 month journey. I modified my training and cut back a little on the weight I was lifting but still enjoyed working out 4-5 times a week.

How to Lose Your Post Pregnancy Weight

And that brings me to my blog title which is how do you lose your post pregnancy weight and I believe it starts during pregnancy. I think keeping active and healthy during my pregnancy really helped me lose the weight after. After I gave birth I definitely gave my body enough time to recover after what felt like a marathon labour of 31 hours! I went to see the Physio at the hospital and she told me I had a slight gap or separation of my abs of one finger so it was recommended I take 6 weeks of rest and recovery before beginning any exercise. I gave myself 8 weeks and slowly introduced exercise.

Just because I’m a personal trainer did not mean I went all guns blazing smashing out exercise, I actually listened to my body and started off with walking and then introduced a yoga class once a week and then slowly began weight training 1-2 times a week and also a Pilates class to help build back my inner core strength which was very weak after giving birth. It’s true your priorities do change once you have a baby but it’s no reason to give up exercise due to lack of time, I just got a little smarter with my training and instead of having 4 days of weight training splitting up different muscle groups I just try to focus on compound exercises which work a few different muscles at the same time and get my exercise session done in about 30 minutes. It can be very stressful having a newborn and it was and is important to me to get that small amount of time to myself to focus on me so that I can project my positive energy on to my little boy.

It does feel like a juggling act sometimes but I have a very supportive partner who knows how important it is to me to get my exercise in and I think that does help a lot. I hope I’m a good role model for mums out there who want to get back into shape after having their little baby and that it is possible to feel good and have a healthy pregnancy and recover well and get back into a healthy and active routine.

Forming Healthy Eating Habits Again

The advice I would give to newbie mums is to not be too hard on yourself during the first couple of weeks as it is a very challenging time and not to be stressing out about your diet. If people come round and bring you treats, enjoy them. It makes the sleep deprivation a little easier and it’s all about balance so as long as your making sure all your other meals are nutritious it’s ok to have a treat every now and again with guests coming over to see your new addition to the family.

I do think that after the first couple of weeks it is important to make sure your forming those healthy eating habits again and whenever you or your partner cooks to make sure you make double so there’s plenty of leftovers for another meal the next day.

Recipe Ideas

If it’s winter, making stews, soups and casseroles are ideal as most of the ingredients can be chucked into a pot in the morning and you have an amazing smelling dinner by the time you put your little one to bed. If it’s summer I love making different types of salads and having the ingredients on hand to throw together. Cooking up a large batch of quinoa, buckwheat or any other gluten free grains and storing in the fridge to have with some frozen green beans, goats feta and some crushed activated almonds, walnuts or macadamias. I’d have a roast chicken with any of these yummy salads and again make a soup or sandwich with the extra meat the next day. Roasting a lamb shoulder or roast beef is great too as you can have a pulled lamb or beef salad the next day or a pumpkin, chick pea and rocket salad with it. The possibilities are endless and I love getting inspired by what people are serving in cafés and trying to recreate them at home.

When it comes to sweet cravings, there’s no doubt that once I’ve finished my dinner you can bet that I’ll want something sweet afterwards, it’s just making sure you have the right foods in your cupboard so you don’t undo all the good work you did throughout the day to eat healthy. I love having some coconut yogurt with some nuts and seeds and a little stevia and cinnamon dusted on top or some milk kefir (fermented yogurt! with some blueberries and homemade activated granola. I also love to bake so taking the time to whip up a batch of muffins while your little one sleeps during the day will definitely help you keep on track. People think it’s too much effort to bake your own muffins or cakes but once you have a few staple ingredients on hand it can take as little as 10 minutes to make a lovely batch of Raspberry Millet Muffins, try it and you’ll see!

Conclusion

I hope that I can show pregnant and new moms that it is possible to keep active and healthy throughout your pregnancy and that even though motherhood can be challenging at times it is still achievable to eat healthy and drop your post baby weight.

What I would like to know is how much weight did she put on? Looks like she only put a little on. I put 23kg. I am a very small person. I was only 47kg before I got pregnant. So her loosing say 14kg to me loosing 23kg is a huge difference!

Hi Fleur, thanks for your comment. I put on 15 kilos during my pregnancy. I kept active throughout this whole time and was in gym at 40 weeks pregnant! I think this helped me with pre and post pregnacy weight gain but I wasn’t doing anything crazy just lifting weights mainly and light cardio. Every woman is different with their pregnancy and I know my best friend who just had a baby only put on 8 kilos during her pregnancy! The thing for me which I had to work on was my tummy, it definitely didn’t bounce back straight away and it’s still a work in progress but had to work on my core exercises and strengthen up those muscles again. ☺️